


The Only Thing To Do Is Say Our Goodbyes

by Sakilya



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-14
Updated: 2011-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-27 08:12:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/293595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakilya/pseuds/Sakilya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sadstuck fill for the kink-meme. Short stories about how the Highbloods lives on after everyone else starts to pass away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vriska

**Author's Note:**

> This is pretty much a test since I'm new to this site, but I hope it's alright c: (Oh yeah, everyone lives in a world that's more like Alternia than Earth btw)

She should have noticed.

She should have noticed how fast John grew, and how much he changed in difference to her. It was obvious really, but she put the thought furthest back into her mind, only listening to the promise he gave her when they first met after the game.

They would always be together.

Aaaaaaaall of them.

She would never be without the pranks he did regularly, and she would wake up every twilight with his fragile skin against hers. And she would steal his glasses as often as she could and he would do the same. And then they would walk around with each other’s glasses and bump into everything because of the different prescription. That was how it would be. Because they belonged together, the two of them.

The sixteen of them.

But even with two time players, and a new world, time would not be allowed to stop, and the differences between them all started to show. Lowbloods and humans alike started to fade even with how hard they fought and Feferi searching for a reason of her title. They had to expect the worst.

The wakeup call came a sweep back as Kanaya broke down crying after Rose had said her final goodbye, and it seemed that the sadness would never end. But perigees went and the jade-blood stood up on her own, stronger than ever. Vriska never thought she would be able to act like that, and pushed away the hints John gave with childish stubbornness. Until she couldn’t hide it anymore, that his body was breaking.

EB: hahaha, love you too B*  
EB: but…  
EB: you know…  
EB: it’s time for me to go  
EB: and i want you to do something for me.

Time seemed to stop. And for the first time she realized fully what he was talking about, what all had been trying to tell her. She reached out with her mind in a panicked feeling, and felt his mind grasp after hers. It was in pain. He was in pain. And she knew his request. She wrapped her arms around his, and he embraced her back lightly.

With a simple motion, harder than everything she had done, she put him to sleep.


	2. Equius

CT: D--> You really should be more careful.  
CT: D--> E%cuse me for being e%cruciating, but you’re not as young anymore.  
CT: D--> Are you still refusing my offer?  
AC :33 < No n33d to worry!  
AC :(( < I would never move into the city and you know that!  
AC :33 < But I n33d to go! A huntress never rests!  
AC :33 < <>  
CT: D--> Of course not.  
CT: D--> <>

That was their last conversation.

Only hours later a couple of older Highbloods from the generation of the last Empress, who didn't approve with the "accept all, no matter blood and spieces" movement, harassed some humans and Nepeta stepped in between, as the brave knight of the new order she was and always had been. Those Highbloods would probably never look down on other trolls or humans again.

Nepeta though, would never open her eyes.

He buried her deep in the forest, knowing it would make her one with the nature she loved so much. She would never forgive him if he buried her near a city as he wanted to, and knowing that made it easier for him to travel hours only to visit her grave once every week.

After a month, he finally mustered up courage to visit her cave, Gamzee following him there as support. (The irony went unsaid, as everything that came from the game was) But knowingly the indigo waiting outside as Equius took one last look around his morails hive. He knew it too well, but for the first time he actually looked.

All over the walls were drawings with the twelve of them. It was a mural of paint that would have pleased the Grand Highblood, if only she'd kept it in blood. (They'd had some trouble with the human animal-rights activists, so she had to switch to paint). He looked at the pictures, every shipping chart that she’d made when they were still children, and new ones she made after they'd arrived in their new universe. He quickly put them away before he ruined them with tears.

Next to the pile where they used to have feeling-jams were an old picture of them with a <> between. It must have been even before he admitted to being pale for her. He held it in his hand as he sat down in the pile he spoke to the drawing, pretended she was there to listen. Three hours later Gamzee came inside and helped him out.

Four days later her cave was empty, except for the wall-paintings, and the walls in his workshop was filled with old pictures.

He never took them down.


	3. Gamzee

More than three fourths of them were gone. Gamzee counted on his fingers as he looked up in the black sky. Eqbro had finally given up and got to rest next to his kitty last perigee. He had no idea where Eridan were off to, but the motherfucker was hard to kill. Feferi was busy running a world and trying to change the whole system grown literally into the blood of trolls. Gamzee did as much as he could helping her, and thanked (precious, wonderful) Tavros in his mind for letting him know how to act around lowbloods and humans before the brown-blood left to a world beyond.

He would never hurt anyone again.

That was the last promise he gave his morail, and one he vowed to keep throughout his whole life. Seeing how long it had been since then, he had kept it pretty well. Seeing how it had been long enough that he could recite Karkat’s every word, everything he had said to Gamzee, but didn’t remember the voice that had said it.

He knew how expressive Karkat had been when he talked, but the photos he had left all over his hive were only moments and without them he probably wouldn’t remember it at all. He wouldn't have been able to remember the face of his (motherfuckingMUTANT) best friend. Gamzee wailed and pulled a long wound at his arm with his claws to distract himself from the whispers in his mind.

He really wanted to be the carefree troll showing the rest of their violent race that it was okay to be kind. He was the descendant of the Grand Highblood but still chosen to be a protector of the weak for so long. (toolongRUNNINGOUTOFTIMEimstillhereKILLT

HEM)

The instincts wouldn’t stop. It got harder and harder the more years that passed. He saw the new trolls and the humans interact with more understanding and more positive emotion. Already there was a part wanting interspecies relationships to be legally admitted.

It was disgusting.

If Karkat had been here he would never had had those thoughts. (killkillkillDESTROYyouFILTHYBUGS). Because even before he got them Karkat would be there, holding his hand and when Gamzee looked into those red, mutant red eyes he could only feel calm and everything was not, never perfect but still so beautiful.

Now that beautiful world was gone and his mind screamed for the perfect one. (imgonnakillyouallRIPTHISWORLDAPARTimgonnafindyouBESTFRIENDyoucantbegoneNOnOnoNonoNO)

He was later going to walk up, have a happy talk with Feferi as usual and then go and teach the younger trolls the importance of trust and kindness. He would show them how to handle their feelings and smile when it turns out a seadweller and a brown-blood both had crushes on each other that seemed more like the human love than pity. He would preach what he would never practice(pleasestophidingKARKATDONTYOUDARETOLEAVEMEplease).

Not anymore at least.


	4. Eridan

Why are you still alive?

Eridan pushed himself out of the water, taking a bit of rest before he would continue on his journey. Never stopping anywhere, never settling down. Almost like a shark. It might have been the enteral paranoia that made him sure of that sooner or later someone would come and take their revenge and kill him.

Maybe it was the guilt that there was no one left to kill him.

Probably it was how he couldn’t stand looking at all the lowbloods and humans living in this world, couldn’t stand how much they reminded him of the childhood he himself ruined. And reminded him of the friends that were now long, long gone. He would never admit it, but he missed them, he never wanted to be alone.

(why are you 2tiill aliive)

He should have been the one die. Not Sollux. Not Karkat. Not… everyone else. This was supposed to be their paradise planet, so why couldn’t he even bring himself to visit the only one he had left? Was he scared? Did she hate him? Maybe… maybe their feelings had a part in creating this world. What if his feelings had transferred their different lifespans, even to this world? What if he had killed them all?

He couldn’t breathe.

(why are you still ALIV---E)

He wasn't able to stay up on land as long anymore, his lungs slowly decaying. Soon he wouldn’t be able to be away from water even less than landdwellers could be underwater. He would never be able to walk on land again; never make that choice to visit Fef one last time.

How long would it be before his gills stopped working too? Would he go peacefully, or would it be painful like he more than anyone else deserved? _(sollux was screaming, couldn’t stop his power from rampaging, burning inside out, eridan found himself screaming too, holding feferi back, the light flickered and disappeared, and everything seemed to break)_

It was getting harder to breathe, his gills automatically fluttering in attempt to get enough oxygen, only making the matter worse. But only when he started to get dizzy and his skin feeling uncomfortable dry, did he jumped back into the sea, letting it engulf him and feeling his body greedily accept the water flowing through him.

The water might have been able to hide his tears, but the blood on his hands would never fade.

Wwhy are you still alive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s only a small headcanon of mine, which is that the seadwellers are a mutant race, sort of, and at the end of their lives the “land-living, air-breathing parts” starts to lay off before the rest, making them return back into the sea. (And no, Sol and Fef didn't actually say that, his guilt only personifies them.


	5. Feferi

“Her Glorious Radiance will now speak!”

She was so tired.

Feferi stepped up to the balcony, hiding any sign of nausea when cheers greeted her as she came into view. She smiled down on the trolls and humans… no, the people looking up at her with mindless worship in their eyes. How long had she been the last Goddess now? She’d stopped counting the sweeps somewhere along the way, but it was so long ago that it shouldn’t matter. Though that thought always succeeded to make her feel like she was lost in the middle of a void.

“Is it right, everything I have done?” Feferi spoke out loud, almost to herself, but always directing it to those who could not hear her anymore. She used to talk to the fifteen them, individually in times of hurt and loneliness, or in hazy dreams, but now they were all a blur. Who had been her closest? What were their full names again?

Of course no one answered her, the listeners only hanging onto her every word but never really hearing what she was saying. She could hear the flow of life pulsating all throughout the world, small lights shining and fading. They were so many now, so many small individuals that she would forever love. It was the role of the Witch of Life.

“My dear children. Please protect this world.” She started up, and could already see the many religious people mouthing the words with her. “Take care of every life, for they are all precious. Take care of every blood drop, for they are all as much worth. Stand up and embrace the night and all the stars, for we will watch you from them.” She started to recite words she remembered writing long ago with the new gods of this world, laughing about how stupid and grownup they sounded. Now she clung to them. No follower would ever know how much it meant for her personally, the last thing they did all sixteen together as children.

“We all have a choice, of walking and swimming wherever we want, and that shall never end. Protect our legacy, and the sixteen lights shall shine over you, and guide you.” Smiling she hid a cough in the palm of her hand, wiping the bloodstain before anyone could see.

“Make us proud, child.” Another coughing fit threw her off, her legs started to hurt, and she had to support herself on the railing as it started to get harder to breath. The lungs always gave up first, and then came the gills. The warning signs had been there for so long now, and she was almost glad to feel her own life-force fade.

Maybe this wasn’t the best time for the fall of a Goddess, maybe it was perfect. It didn’t matter. She was only so tired, Goddess or not. Smiling down one last time on the suddenly quiet audience she only wished that her friends would have been beside her to see this world. It was the last regret she felt, before a wave of painful dizziness hit her.

The last of the sixteen lights went out.


	6. Aradia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I lied, the last chapter is not narrated by a highblood ;=

Aradia fluttered silently and unnoticed over the beach. The place was filled with crying trolls, and even a few humans, as the Empress, the last Goddess’s body was sunk into the sea, passing through the hands of landdwellers to seadwellers and lastly a large tentacle coming up and cradling the corpse gently, carefully, with the same care as if it was holding a grub.

Feferi’s body was taken down to where it belonged, in the depths of the sea. A fitting funeral of a troll that would go down in the history as a queen, but never being regarded as more than fictional character created by the followers of the sixteen.

Aradia watched worriedly as the trolls started to talk in hushed tones, slowly growing more panicked. It was the normal reaction after losing the one who had been their leader from the very first day of the planet. This was a very sad day for the empire, but for Aradia it was only a relief that they didn’t have to wait any longer. They could finally be together again, all of them. It was something she had wished for the moment she woke up dead.

It had hurt, seeing everyone appear one after one, knowing how much the split between life and death hurt them all in one way or another. But soon they would be able to make truth of the promise the John human once gave them. A quiet sob beside her let her know that she didn’t have to wait anymore.

Feferi was only looking at her with a small, disbelieving smile, tyrian tears running down from white eyes. “I-is this ---ENOUGH?” she asked, as if for forgiveness. The red-blood smiled, patting the others hair in a comforting gesture. A moment later Aradia found herself with an armful of Radiance. She hugged the girl back. “C-Can I rest now?”

“Yes, you’ve done great.” Aradia pushed Feferi away slightly, but still kept a link with their hands. The world started to disappear around them, light of the dream bubbles illuminating the night. The sounds of the funeral slowly exchanged into the voices that the former Empress had forgotten long, long ago.

“It’s time for us to return home.”

They would always be together.


End file.
